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Saturday, March 2, 2013

Think Like A Chef - Breakthrough #2

Due to circumstances, I was unable to make the planned
dinner of eggplant, zucchini, and roasted tomato lasagna.However, I was still in the mood to cook, and
I wanted to make something Italian.

My thought process went something like this:“I’ll make chicken parm with a side of
pasta.But, I really only try to eat pasta
once a week, so I’ll make spaghetti squash…which I have never even tasted
before.Sounds good.Except I eat chicken at least three times a
week.So, instead I’ll make meatballs.No…I try to eat red meat only once a
week.I know!I’ll make turkey meatballs!Which I have never made either.This should be interesting.”

Now, I’ve never made meatballs of any kind before, but I’ve watched
enough cooking shows to have an idea of what I needed to buy, so I went to the
store and bought some ingredients.First
I bought some gluten free bread crumbs with Italian seasoning.

Aleia's makes very good gluten free products.

Next, I had to decide what kind of cheese.Now here was the dilemma.First, I had to choose between Parmesan and
Pecorino Romano.Also, how bad would
this taste if I substitute either of these cheeses for the low fat version I
can get from that little green plastic bottle? In the end, because this was my first time
making these, I went with real cheese and I went with the Pecorino Romano.I also bought some parsley, and of course
ground turkey.

This led to another dilemma.Do I get the 93% fat free or the 99% fat free ground turkey?Personally, I think that meat has to have a
little bit of fat to it, so I went with the 93% fat free.

Next, I bought a spaghetti squash, which to my surprise had
a harder exterior than butternut squash, and finally some RAO’s marinara sauce.I went with RAO’s because I didn’t feel I had
time to make a sauce from scratch, and RAO’s was rated one of the best jarred
sauces a couple of years ago.

My plan of attack was to put the sauce in a pot, heat it up,
make the turkey meatballs, and then drop them in the sauce.This led to yet another interesting
decision.There is a lot of controversy
on the right way to make meatballs of any kind.Look on the internet.Some people
drop them in the sauce raw, some people brown them, then put them in the sauce,
some people bake them first, and so on.Ultimately, I decided to go the Anne Burrell route:Brown them, bake them, then put them in the
sauce.

To make them, first I sweated some onion.I don’t like raw onion in my turkey meatballs
or regular meatballs, even though they are made that way sometimes.After sweating them for a few minutes, I
added minced garlic cloves, continued to cook for a minute or two and then took
them off the heat.I put the ground
turkey in a bowl, followed by two eggs, about 2/3 cup of bread crumbs, 2/3 cup
of Pecorino Romano, some parsley, some salt, and mixed it up with my
hands.(This of course led to the first
of 50 or so hand washings!)Then I added
the onion garlic mixture to the bowl and remixed.Then I added some water to the mixture in an
attempt to keep the turkey balls moist. (Thanks, Anne Burrell, for the
tip!)

Next I heated up some olive oil, and made a very small patty
just to check for seasoning.It needed a
tiny bit more salt.

Next I made the turkey meatballs, making sure not to pack
them too tightly so they wouldn’t be tough.

Raw turkey meatballs. Not perfectly round but...

I then browned them in two batches, and then baked them for twenty
minutes at 350 degrees.I went with
twenty minutes because they were decent sized.After twenty minutes, into the sauce they went.

Now I had to make the spaghetti squash.Having never made spaghetti squash (or even
tasted it for that matter) I watched some YouTube videos on it to see how to
prepare it.I chose the one by Michael
Chirello.In the video, he cut the
squash open with a cleaver.What a show
off!I’ll just take my chef’s knife
and….ahem…I’ll just take my chef’s knife and…what is this thing made out
of?Concrete??

So, I used a cleaver, just like that great chef Michael
Chiarello, who would never show off by using a cleaver…

In any case, after much struggle, I opened it, put some olive
oil on each half, seasoned it with salt and pepper, put the flesh side down,
and cooked it for 40 minutes.Then I
took it out of the oven and let it cool.Then I scrapped it with a large spoon.Wow!That’s pretty cool!It looks like…spaghetti!I tasted it, and it was a little bland so I
sprinkled it lightly with sea salt.

To serve, I took a pan, heated some of the sauce that was in
the pot, and then I put the spaghetti squash into the pan.

Really...how cool is that?

Then I put the it in the bowls.Then I took the turkey balls out
of the sauce and put them in the bowl and put a little more sauce on top.Then I sprinkled some more pecorino Romano,
and then some parsley.

The finished dish. I wish I hadn't covered up the meatballs so much.

I have to say, the whole meal was quite good.The turkey meatballs were not tough at all,
and very moist.At the same time, the
spaghetti squash had a lot of body to it, and stood up well to the sauce, so it
gave a nice texture difference from the turkey meatballs.

I will say that this meal was higher in fat content than I
usually like.I think I would like to
try it next time by using one less egg, and maybe trying to find a good quality
low fat cheese. That being said, this was a filling, flavorful meal, that I
would make again. I think Chef Colicchio would say I've made good progress.

1 comment:

This sounds like a good, solid comfort food meal---and well executed. I would definitely try this recipe again using the 99% fate free ground turkey and I think you will find it to be even better. The texture will be better, and they absolutely will not be dry (just don't brown the meatballs too much, and let them instead cook longer in the sauce. The sauce will provide all of the moisture you need---think braising).My two favorite parts of your post: That you made the small patty ahead of time to check for seasoning, and that you sprinkled the parsley at the end---a nice attention to detail, and definitely thinking like a chef! Keep on cooking!